Licorice Whips (7 page)

“Work.” Nikla sat in her car. “I have to work tonight as a matter of fact.”

“But you don’t want to.” Sweet caught the put-upon tone in her voice when she spoke about her job.

“Filling in for a coworker.”

“Wow. Not even a friend. The pressures you put on yourself.” He knew exactly how to relieve those pressures.

Nikla stared at him for a moment before she averted her gaze. “I have to go. Thanks, again, for your concern.”

“I’m only concerned about if I’ll see you again.” Sweet wanted to know what would bring her to the brink of ecstasy.

“Why would you think I would be interested in you?” she asked before closing her door.

Sweet watched a rosy color cover her cheeks. Even that made her alluring.

“I can see it in your eyes. When you look me up, and I know you will, you’ll see what I have to offer.” He closed her car door. 

Sweet strolled to the front of his truck to give her room to maneuver out of her parking spot. 

He kept his gaze on Nikla until she got out of sight. He knew she would research him online and run across the article about him and Masaun. He would have to wait to see if she would come into Decadent Treats.

Speaking of the store, Sweet had been away from it long enough. He hopped in his truck and went back to work with a renewed spirit.

He bounded into the store as he thought about their exchange.

“You look to be in a better mood than when you left earlier.” Connie stocked the licorice shelf as she spoke to him.

“I just needed my second wind.” Sweet stopped next to his employee. “Connie, if a woman comes in looking for me, come and get me, okay?”

“That’s every woman that comes in here. They all ask for you or your brother. How am I going to tell the difference?” Her demure demeanor really reminded him of his Nana.

Sweet patted the plump woman on her back. “Trust me. You’ll know. This one is special.”

“Aren’t they all?” She chuckled and tucked a strand of her graying light brown hair behind her ear. “Are you at least going to tell me what she looks like?”

“It’s the lone protester.”

“Oh.” Connie blinked. “Does Masaun know?”

When Sweet’s scowl deepened, Connie rethought her line of questioning.

“I’d better get back to work.” She turned back to the shelves.

“That’s my line. Get back to work.” Sweet strolled toward the kitchen area to create more candies.

The baking would help ease his mind. Besides BDSM play, he found the creative process of developing new candies and sweets for people to enjoy relaxed him.

The conversation with Nikla put him in a mood for something rich, chocolaty, and smooth. Sweet placed the ingredients on the long stainless steel table.

Sweet wanted to know more about the beauty with the great set of lungs. He also wanted to know what man, or men, had hurt her. The fact that he had a bigger interest in her beyond her desire to ruin his business worried him. Until he could get back to his normal self in all aspects of his life, he knew he shouldn’t be thinking of any woman as potential. He had to push himself, and he knew where he needed to go to do that.

Chapter Four

Nikla couldn’t deny the butterflies fluttering in her stomach as soon as she parked her vehicle in front of Decadent Treats the next day.

Despite Sweet’s assertion that she would check him out, Nikla had refrained. She’d just dumped Justin. She didn’t need his spot filled. Not right now. Not when she had other things to occupy her time. Too bad Sweet filled most of her waking and unconscious thoughts.

On her drive back from downtown, she thought about Sweet’s eyes, his mouth, his hands. Oh, God, those hands. When he’d extended one for her to shake, Nikla couldn’t take it. She knew that if she’d touched the man that her somewhat tame thoughts would turn into something pornographic.

She imagined him taking off her clothes and making her get on top of him to ride him. She would do that to look into those sparkling green eyes. Too bad only his eyes sparkled. With his dour expression, no way could he have a girlfriend...or boyfriend. She’d never established whether his pendulum swung toward the ladies or men.

Nikla got out of her car with a handful of her fliers. As she paced in front of the candy store, she tried not to glance into Decadent Treats, looking for that tempting employee.

In her attempt to be shady about her observation detail, she nearly ran into a customer trying to go into the store.

“Sorry. Um, I have this if you, uh, well–” The more she fumbled with her speech, the faster the woman walked by her to get into Decadent Treats.

Just thinking about Sweet had her flustered enough for her to forget her spiel.

“Damn.” Nikla leaned her head back and squeezed her eyes shut. “I have to get it together.”

“No, you don’t.”

The deep voice shook Nikla enough to right herself and spin on her heel. Behind her stood Sweet. Today he wore a pink Decadent Treats t-shirt and jeans. Only a man like Sweet could get away with having a name like “Sweet” and wear a pink t-shirt.

“Don’t you have work to do?” She turned her back on Sweet and chewed on her lower lip, praying in her head that he remained outside with her.

Sweet looked good enough to eat even though he didn’t smile.

“You mean I should keep working until your little protests shuts down this business?”

Nikla brought her attention back to him. In an unexpected move, he held up a frosty bottle of water. Nikla spied the offering suspiciously before returning her gaze to his face to gauge his sincerity.

“I figured you would be thirsty doing all of your marching.” Without a smile, Sweet still seemed sinister despite the generous gesture.

So why did Nikla’s stomach still flip at a simple bottle of water? She knew it had nothing to do with Sweet’s olive branch gift. It had everything to do with the man behind it. Why did he intrigue her so much?

“No thank you. Besides, I don’t know if you’ve poisoned it. You probably injected a syringe full of something to give me diarrhea.” Nikla continued her pacing, waiting for someone to approach her to cut the tension between her and Sweet. When she turned back toward him, she found Sweet staring at her.

Sweet opened the bottle and tipped it back into his mouth to prove to her that he wouldn’t hurt her. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling.

“You look different today.” Sweet scanned her from her head to her feet.

“Different how?” She put her hand to her stomach.

Sweet nodded. “Nice.”

With it being Saturday, Nikla had had two early morning classes. At the end of them, she decided to go home, shower, and change into a simple pair of skinny jeans, a loose-fitting top, and flats. Because her lips felt chapped, she did put on some lip balm and a little gloss. She didn’t do it because she thought she would see Sweet. If she kept thinking that, she might believe the lie.

Deana would have been proud of her. Nikla at least did change her outfit from her work clothes.

“You made comments about what I wore yesterday, I thought I would switch it up a little.” Nikla had told the truth there.

Sweet must have recognized it, evident from his demeanor. “So you adjusted your behavior because of me.”

Sweet said his statement as a declaration, not a question.

Nikla opened her mouth to refute him, but he had her. “Not entirely for you.”

He shook his head. “I didn’t say it was a bad thing. Had I known you listened to me, I would have told you to wear your hair down.”

Instinctively, Nikla put her hand to her head. The bun she styled her hair in allowed her freedom to not think about the style the rest of the day and kept her tresses out of her face.

Knowing that Sweet wanted her hair down had her thinking about his motives. Was he just saying that to throw her off her game or did she grab his interest? If she did, why did she care?

“You really don’t have to stand out here with me.” Nikla kept marching back and forth in front of him.

“No, I really do. I told you I would do whatever I could to protect this place.”

“I’m not going to burn it down.” She turned her back on him and strolled away, hoping for a distraction.

“I don’t know you so I don’t know that. But I did do a little research on you.”

Nikla froze in her spot. With her back still to him, she asked, “You did? What did you find?”

When Sweet didn’t answer right away, she turned to him.

Sweet’s stoic expression made the man hard to read. Nikla liked the mystery.

“You don’t have much of a web presence.” Sweet finished off the water, then crossed his arms over his chest. “You aren’t on any social media sites. You don’t have a website, blog, or vlog. For someone so passionate about your stance, it surprises me that you don’t have a petition site.”

Nikla shied away from putting herself out on the web for several reasons, one mainly because of her father. Since Sweet didn’t mention her association with Lawrence, she assumed he didn’t know about her father.

“Maybe you weren’t looking in the right places.” Nikla tried to keep up the mystery but felt Sweet could see right through her.

“Unless you are hiding a side of yourself, I like that you aren’t caught up in letting the world know what you ate for breakfast.”

Nikla paused before she let out a laugh. “There’s something about me that you like? I’m shocked.”

“You’re still a pain, but you’re an interesting puzzle to figure out.” Sweet started to move toward her.

Nikla started her pacing again.

“How long have you been doing this? I get the impression that you’ve been at this for a while.”

“Just a few weeks.”

“How is it that I’ve never seen you before?”

“I don’t know.” She brought her gaze up to meet his. “Maybe I never captured your interest.”

When he didn’t speak, she thought he would burst into laughter soon. His heavy-lidded gaze told her that he didn’t find anything she said funny.

“So why do you want to have your own business?” he asked.

“Why do you care? I’m just some woman with too much time on her hands and a small dog, right?” Just to make the statement boiled her blood again.

“I was so wrong about that assessment about you.” He put his hand to his chest in a show of sincerity.

Just before Nikla started to thank him for his subtle apology, he continued with his speech.

“It’s obvious you couldn’t care for another living thing.”

With it being so soon after her breakup with Justin, the comment hurt more than she thought it would. Nikla felt her heart starting to pound. Even in the mild seventies temperature, sweat started to erupt on her forehead.

Keep it together. Breathe. Breathe. 

“I’ve met some pretty hard women, but you have to be the coldest.” Sweet rubbed his hand across the back of his neck. “What person, man or woman, would picket a candy store?”

When she glanced at Sweet, on the surface, she could tell he’d said the truth. Behind his eyes, he looked like he kept a secret hidden. Looked like they both kept secrets close to their vests.

“I’m passionate about a lot of things.” Nikla balled her hands into fists. “Did you ever think that women were cold around you because
you
make them that way?”

For that question, he answered her with a single flex in his jaw. Nikla must have struck a nerve.

Nikla didn’t know what type of women Sweet dealt with in his life. She wouldn’t be some cowering woman willing to roll over for him even though her nerves started to betray her.

She took in a deep breath, held it hoping it would sustain her, then released it. Why was her heart still racing?

“Tell me about the boyfriend,” he stated as he strolled next to her.

Nikla couldn’t speak. Her throat felt constricted, not like she wanted to cry, but rather scream, only nothing would come out of it. Her pounding heart drummed out of control.

She stopped her march long enough to realize that the world started to blur in her vision. Squiggly colorful lines replaced distinct figures.

Oh no, no, no, no!

“Uh, I’m not going to talk about him.” She glanced up at the light blue sky and hoped to be able to get herself together.

“Did you break up with him already?”

“How did you know–”

“You mentioned before that he would be your soon-to-be ex.”

Damn, this man had listened to every word she’d said even when she hadn’t said anything to him directly.

Although Nikla liked that trait, she couldn’t think about him right now. She balled her hands into fists, clutching the papers she held until they wrinkled and crinkled under the grip. She started breathing in and out of her mouth, panting so hard she started to feel lightheaded.

“Oh, God.” Nikla hadn’t expected to feel a hand on her shoulder. She turned her head and caught Sweet staring back at her.

“You’re having a panic attack.” His tone was slow, low and easy.

Even though he delivered the message in a calm, matter-of-fact way, that didn’t prevent Nikla from exclaiming, “No shit!”

She didn’t normally curse at strangers, but she felt her world spiraling out of her control. Nikla put her hand against her chest and tried to remember all of the tricks her doctor had told her.

“Come inside and sit down.” Sweet turned her shoulders and tried heading her into Decadent Treats.

Even without being able to speak, Nikla shook her head and instead moved toward her car. She managed to unlock the car door before she collapsed onto the parking lot next to it.

Her lungs burned the more she gasped for needed breath. She wanted to scream for allowing herself to lose control.

Nikla felt an arm go around her waist. Someone pulled her up and placed her limp body in the back seat of her car.

“Just...want...to...go.” She stammered her statement as her hands shook.

“Not in this condition.” Sweet seized her car keys from her hands. “Stay right here.”

He ran off, leaving her to wonder where he went and what he’d planned on doing to her. Her luck, he would take embarrassing pictures of her and post them over the Internet.